Smartphone manufacturers have been wondering what’s next for them – smartwatch, virtual reality or something else. Smartwatches or smart wearables are seen as the next logical step for many players, and why not. I have been wearing a fitness tracker for almost two years now. It tracks my sleep, steps, calories burned in process and incoming phone notifications.

But having used some smartwatches in the past, I am still not convinced about their need – at least not immediately.

Huawei Watch is not a new smartwatch, it was announced almost a year back and has finally landed in India. The smartwatch comes with circular watch face like Moto 360 and LG’s Watch Urbane.

Huawei Watch looks more like a standard watch than any of its other competitors. In India, Fitbit’s new fitness watch and now Pebble watches are all available. So is the Huawei Watch really the one to buy? Read on our review to know

Price: Rs 22,999

What is good?

Huawei Watch’s USP is its design, which is more in line with a traditional watch. The round watch face looks closer to the one you would find high end mechanical watches. It has a more gentle look than LG’s Watch Urbane.

Our Huawei Watch review unit came with a stainless steel case with Black leather band. I can easily say this is the most comfortable smartwatch I’ve ever worn. However, the quality of leather strap that came with Titan Juxt was far superior. Huawei has designed the most premium looking Android Wear smartwatch yet.

Another thing I quite liked about Huawei Watch is the display. Huawei Watch has a perfectly round 1.4-inch display with a resolution of 400 x 400 pixels. Everything looks sharper on this display with texts appearing crisp.

Huawei Watch’s USP is its design, which is more in line with a traditional watch. The round watch face looks closer to the one you would find high end mechanical watches.

Huawei Watch also supports always-on display, which is an added bonus and the quality of watch faces bundled with the watch definitely blends well with the overall design.

Huawei Watch comes pre-loaded with Google Fit, but I found myself using Huawei’s very own ‘Daily Tracking’ app more. Huawei’s idea to take on the fitness front is a really smart effort as the app does everything that Google Fit would do, but with slightly nicer graphics.

Once you enter your personal metrics, Huawei tracks your steps, calories burnt and most importantly the number of times you stand up in a day. It also tracks the amount of steps climbed and distance run during the day – but the results aren’t that accurate.

Huawei Watch comes pre-loaded with Google Fit, but I found myself using Huawei’s very own ‘Daily Tracking’ app more.

Huawei has tied up with Jawbone, one of the slickest fitness apps and you can tap into Jawbone’s UP platform. Yes, you don’t need a UP band and Jawbone pulls up vital fitness stats from Huawei’s Daily Tracking app.

Huawei Watch runs Android Wear with independent WiFi and Bluetooth support. It also comes with Together feature that allows two Android Wear smartwatch users to share messages instantly.

Best bit: Huawei Watch is one of the few Android Wear devices to work seamlessly with an iPhone. Though the experience is limited, it is still a nice feature to have.

What is not good?

Battery life continues to be a pain point on this Android Wear device. Huawei Watch lasted a day with always-on turned on, and a day and a half with the feature turned off. Bottom line is you will have to charge it every night. On the bright side, Huawei Watch charges in one hour.

Huawei Watch doesn’t come with an ambient light sensor, which limits the otherwise great display.

Huawei Watch lasted a day with always-on turned on, and a day and a half with the feature turned off.

Android Wear is very much a work in progress. The apps are sluggish and personally Android Wear 2.0 is needed to make theses smartwatches a must buy device.Lack of GPS is another problem, given the price.

Should you buy?

After spending almost two weeks with Huawei Watch, I believe this is the best one in the Android Wear space. If you don’t care for the Moto 360 and want something more elegant-looking, then go for this one.

If you own an iPhone, then the best smartwatch to get is Apple Watch undoubtedly. If you want a great fitness smartwatch, the Samsung Gear S2 might be better.